The Moment I Understand My Enemy
by Sword Brethren Caedus
Summary: "…Understand him well enough to defeat him, I also love him. It's impossible to really understand somebody and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment… I destroy them." –Ender Wiggin (Not a Warhammer quote, but still applicable to my Inquisitor.)
1. Chapter 1

**Statement proclaiming the author's lack of ownership of the Warhammer Universe.**

* * *

The girl was hiding in the garden as she cried. The other children called her names, said she didn't belong. They treated her bad, and she hadn't even done anything wrong. Even the Sisters didn't trust her very much.

"Hey," a voice called from the other side of the wall that separated the cathedral-like headquarters of the Sororitas Order stationed here from the rest of the city. The little girl looked up to see a raggedy man smiling sadly at her through an iron grate. He sounded nice, and didn't look at her like she was strange.

"Why are you crying?" he asked, "The Emperor has blessed us with a beautiful day and a beautiful world to live in."

"Because I'm sad," she sniffed, "The others pick on me. They say I'm different, but I'm not. I do the same things they do."

"They bully you?" the little girl nodded in response. The raggedy man's face fell. "That's not very nice of them. Did you tell the Sisters?"

"They won't listen to me. They don't like me, either."

"How can anyone not like a girl with a beautiful name like yours?" the raggedy man asked.

"I don't have a name. I'm just number 33," the girl said unhappily.

"That can't be true. Everyone has a name, even orphans."

"Well…" the girl looked around the garden conspiratorially, "Sometimes, Sister Helen calls me Valena," she mumbled so low the raggedy man almost missed it.

"Valena?" he asked, "See, I knew you had a beautiful name!" He smiled at her and she decided she liked that smile.

"Valena," another, female, voice called out from somewhere nearby, "Valena, are you in here?"

"I bet that's Sister Helen," the raggedy man guessed. The girl nodded. "She sounds very pretty." She nodded again. "I have to go now," he said, "I'm glad I met you, Valena."

"Me, too."

"Who are you talking to, little one?" The girl turned to see the Sister standing there.

"The raggedy man," she answered honestly, pointing at the now-empty grate, "He said the Emperor blessed us with a beautiful day."

"That's nice," the Sister said, in the tone one used when kids introduced imaginary friends, "Now, come, it's time to eat."

* * *

The next day, the little girl and the others were ushered into the sanctuary to hear the Canoness preach. A number of people from the city were there, too. Once again, the other children tried to sit as far away from her as they could. She pretended not to notice and instead looked at the other people. Some of them had never been in here before, and looked around in awe. One of the people who wasn't seemed…familiar. He was average in every respect, but the people around him reacted much like the other children did to her, knowingly or unknowingly avoiding getting too close. She felt like she'd seen him somewhere before.

With a quick look around, she got out of her seat and went to sit next to him. He looked pleasantly surprised when she sat next to him.

"Hello there," he said with a smile she _knew_ she'd seen the day before, "Who are you?"

"Did you forget?" the girl asked, "We met yesterday. You were outside the garden in the city."

"I was?" his eyebrow quirked up in amusement. She nodded.

"Mm-hmm. You're the raggedy man," she said with absolute certainty. He laughed.

"You're very perceptive, Valena," the raggedy man praised, "You know what that means?" She shook her head. "It means you're good at noticing things." He fell silent as the Canoness began. Afterwards, the girl looked at him.

"Will I see you tomorrow?" she asked. The raggedy man grinned.

"That depends on how hard you look."

* * *

The girl known as 33 saw the raggedy man several times over the course of a standard week. She would wave at him, and he would respond, sometimes a wink, other times a small wave. Then, one day, he wasn't there. Sister Helen gently suggested that maybe she just hadn't found him, but the little girl knew for sure the raggedy man hadn't been there. When Sister Helen and a good number of the other Sisters were gone the next day, too, the little girl _knew_ something was happening. She wondered if the raggedy man going missing had anything to do with it.

* * *

Marcus Ryker couldn't help a sense of divine righteousness as he looked at the now-burning remains of a heretic outpost. The Canoness to his left, however, was frowning. She frowned a lot, Ryker thought to himself.

"Something on your mind?" he asked. The Canoness flinched at the implied threat, and at his accent. It was a strange blend of the Imperium's many, with the end result of sounding like none of them.

"Merely the fact you refuse to identify your associate that did this could be considered cause for concern," was her irritated answer.

"Consider away," came the off-handed reply, "She wishes to remain anonymous, and I shall respect her wishes for once." He pointed to a ridge about three kilometers out. "The center for this heresy is encamped just beyond the ridge. Scour its existence from the face of the planet."

"As is the Emperor's Will, Inquisitor."

* * *

The little girl looked up meekly as her number was called during the morning meal. She hurried to keep up with the Sister who led her through the hallways towards the infirmary, where she left the little girl, returning to her duties.

"Valena?" the little girl ran to Sister Helen, hugging her. "What are you doing here?"

"The Sister told me to follow her, so I did," Valena said with a frown, "Did you get hurt? One of the boys said you went on a mission. Did it have to do with the raggedy man?"

Someone behind her chuckled. "Sister Helen will be alright," a familiar voice assured her, "It takes more than a couple autogun rounds to kill a Sister of Battle. And, yes, you could say the mission was because of your raggedy man."

Two people walked into the infirmary. The Canoness, who was frowning at the raggedy man (she frowned a lot, the little girl thought), and the raggedy man himself.

But the raggedy man looked different from all the other times she'd seen him. Now, his hair, always untidy before, was slicked back, and he wore black armor, shining slightly as the light reflected off of it, and a dark coat underneath the plates.

With the holy symbol of the Imperial Inquisition in red on the chest.

* * *

**Words expressing the author's desire that the reader finds the story interesting.**

**Request for reviews, contingent on the reader's desire to.**


	2. Chapter 2

**The ownership of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe is not mine, unfortunately. Nor are the characters of Private Sev or Illineth. Those two belong to dontaskimdisappointed, the author of another 40k story called Boots First, which you should read, it's really good.**

* * *

Marcus Ryker couldn't help but smile as he approached the _Pious Inquisitor_, an ironically named _Claymore_-class corvette of the Desir rogue trader dynasty. Valena stared at it with eyes wide as saucers. One hand gripped tightly to his, the other held the small bag of all her worldly possessions. He readjusted his own bag, the Ignatus armor inside clinking lightly. His hair was tousled again, and he vanished, just another face in the crowd.

"You like the ship?" he asked the little girl.

"It's so _big_," she breathed. Marcus laughed.

"Would you believe me if I said it's one of the smallest in the fleet?" he asked. If anything, Valena's eyes grew wider.

"Really?" He nodded.

"It's my home," he explained, "And it's yours, too, now." Valena stared in wonder as they boarded the ship, delighting Marcus to no end. He was still grinning when he found his "retinue of rejects" as Anna liked to call them. They were gathered in the wardroom he'd set aside for his personal use as Inquisitor Ryker, usually meetings like this. Commander Hallan never visited this part of the ship.

"Are we ready to leave?" he asked, addressing one of two nearly-identical women in the wardroom. They both had black hair and grey eyes, but while one cut hers almost boyishly short, the other, the one Ryker spoke to, wore it in a single braid that fell just past her shoulders.

"As soon as you give the word, I'll call the crew. They should all be back within thirty minutes," Elissa reported. He nodded.

Valena looked around the room with wonder. She watched as the lady with the braid moved over to a device on the wall and began speaking into it. Another lady who looked a lot like the first one, but with shorter hair, leaned back in a chair, her feet on the table that sat in the center of the room. They both wore long brown coats with red trim over plain white shirts, black trousers, and black boots.

"I thought you were on the _Macto Unconquered_, Anna," the raggedy man - Marcus, he'd told her, his name was Marcus - said to the shorter-haired lady.

"I am on the _Macto Unconquered_," she replied evenly, giving him a mischievous little grin. Marcus looked like he was about to reply when she noticed the little girl holding his hand. "And who's this?" she nearly squealed with delight, getting out of her chair, "Aren't you just the _cutest_!"

Marcus gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "This is Valena," he introduced, "Valena, these are my friends. That's Elissa," he pointed to the lady with the braided hair, "That's Anna," he pointed at the short-haired lady who waved at her.

"And that's Allan," he pointed at a man who was leaning against the wall of the ship, looking out the window at the setting sun. His hair was very short and was blond. He had hard, brown eyes. Valena could see that he had seen a lot of bad things, however young he looked. She didn't know how she knew that, but she did. The man sighed.

"How many waifs and strays are you going to collect, Lord Ryker?" he asked, turning from the window.

"She's special," came the reply, "I'm going to train her. A black ship is scheduled to come here soon, and that is no fate for one such as this."

Allan frowned for a moment before realization dawned on his face. "Ah, Emperor spare us, not another one," he groaned, "Two of you are bad enough, now _three_? We're Chaos bait."

"I find that assumption insulting," a lilting voice, almost musical in tone, spoke up from the hall. Another woman gracefully moved past them in white, form-fitting armor, frowning. She had bright red hair and ice-blue eyes that glared at Allan, "Your dogmatic belief in fearing that which you do not understand will be your death."

"Alien," Valena whimpered, catching sight of the third woman's pointed ears. She hid behind Ryker, her hands clutching the edge of his coat. Ryker turned and bent to hold her gently by the shoulders.

"Don't worry," he said reassuringly, "She's on our side."

"But…she's…"

"Yes, she's xenos," Elissa said, coming over and kneeling next to Ryker, "but she's not going to hurt anyone."

"But…why?"

"Because she owes Marcus her life. So she's not going to do anything Marcus doesn't tell her to." Elissa stood up, taking hold of Valena's hand. "You look a little tired," she said, "You wanna see your room?" Valena nodded. Marcus smiled a silent _thank you_ to Elissa as she led the little girl away.

He went over and sat in a chair, the argument raging in the background until he couldn't take it anymore.

"Lord Ryker's powers are sanctioned by the Ecclesiarchy and the Astra Telepathica, as well as the Inquisition itself!" Sergeant Allan yelled, "Yours and that girl's are not! _You_ should've been killed, and that girl ought to be sent to the Astra Telepathica!"

"You continue to repeat the same arguments whether or not they are applicable to what I have just said!"

"The Ecclesiarchy-"

"Again! The Ecclesiarchy! Does your ignorant cult of corpse-worshippers do _all_ of your thinking? Have you a single original thought?"

"_You dare!-_"

"I can hardly blaspheme against something that is not divine!"

"Emperor's Breath, Vanders, would you and Irileth just admit you like each other already! I swear by Holy Terra you're worse than Private Sev!" Ryker finally exploded, shutting the two up.

The Howling Banshee looked like she wanted to rip the Inquisitor limb from limb, while the Stormtrooper's face had turned a deep red, and bore a similar glare. Anna chuckled slightly.

"Okay, I _have_ to hear this one," she said, smirking, her arms folded across her chest.

Marcus sighed. "I'm not getting out of this, am I?" Anna shook her head. Allan leaned against the bulkhead, grinning a little, his face returning to its normal color.

"You brought it up, milord," he pointed out.

"For once, I agree with him," Irileth grumbled, putting her hands on her hips in a very human-like way.

Marcus rubbed his eyes. "I did, didn't I?" He straightened up in his chair. "Some time ago," he began with a sigh, "I was investigating possible heresy in the Roland Prime Imperial Guard. This was before I'd met any of you, I still worked alone then. I had gone in as a guardsman in the…Third Drop Regiment, I think. Yes, it was; I was in third platoon, and I lost my helmet just before we dug in at a refinery. A tank company had to come rescue us because our command royally screwed up."

He cleared his throat. "We were just happy to be alive, and then this private, Sev, comes walking up, looking only slightly the worse for wear, and he's got another guardsman with him, a 'female from another unit'." At that point he made quotation marks in the air with his fingers. "She'd 'lost her hearing', too. Incredibly convenient. To make a very long story short, Private Sev was covering for an Eldar who he'd started out working with out of necessity. Their relationship…grew from there."

"What did you do?" Anna asked.

"Fought like hell to survive. Pissed my pants a lot. Thanked the Emperor the rumors of heresy were just rumors, because when the Orks overran our defensive perimeter, I needed every shot I had just to stay alive. Almost revealed who I was when the Imperial Fists showed up. I think I did, later, I'm not sure, it's been awhile…"

"No, no, I meant about the guardsman and the Eldar," she explained.

"Ah. Nothing."

"What? Why?!" Vanders exclaimed.

Marcus shrugged. "Xenos are not my responsibility."

"He didn't kill the xenos when he had the chance; he gave it an Imperial uniform; he was in a relationship with it-" Vanders began ticking points off using his fingers.

"Is. As far as I know, they're still alive."

"-All of which are still heresy. _That_ is your responsibility, if I remember correctly, milord."

"I deal with heresy on a larger scale. If I pursued every act of heresy, I'd have to execute every person in the Imperium."

Vanders frowned, his displeasure apparent. Irileth spoke up next.

"Was this Eldar a Howling Banshee by the name of Illineth, by any chance?"

Marcus blinked in surprise. "I believe so…"

"She disappeared and we never found a body. We assumed she was dead."

"I didn't know you were there."

"I did not know _you_ were, either, mon-keigh. If I had known what I do now, I would have made it a point to hunt you down then."

Ryker chuckled. "Point taken."

"So, let me get this straight," Elissa interjected, having returned at the tail end of the story, "You were there."

"Yes."

"You knew she was an alien."

"Yes."

"You knew they were…together."

Marcus nodded.

"And you did nothing about it?"

"Correct."

"All before you met us?"

"…Yes."

She pointed at him triumphantly. "I _knew_ you had a soft spot! You're a horrible liar, Marcus."

Ryker rubbed his eyes again. "Only when it involves you," he groaned. "How's Valena?" he asked changing the subject.

"She's asleep in one of the spare cabins. Asked me if we were going to touch the stars. Such a cute little thing," Elissa sighed.

"I know, right?" Anna practically squealed, "Isn't she just _adorable_?"

The vox unit on the wall chirped. "Captain, all crew save Commander Hallan have been accounted for."

Ryker stood and move out of the room at a brisk pace, headed towards the ramp, secluded in a dark corner of the ship.

"That's my cue to leave," Anna whispered, following the Inquisitor.

"Understood Lieutenant," Elissa answered the vox, "I will be on the bridge momentarily."

"Yes, Captain."

Elissa glared at the two remaining retainers still in the wardroom. "You two better reach some sort of agreement," she hissed, "Or by the Emperor, I will _void_ the both of you mid-jump!"

The sergeant had the sense to at least _look_ contrite. "Yes, ma'am."

* * *

**Just so no one gets upset about Ryker's apparent "tolerance" of xenos, he's one of those people you meet every now and then who doesn't really care about anything not related to what they're doing at the time (kids being the exception, he cares about what happens to kids). And I'll reveal why Irileth is stuck working with him very soon.**


End file.
